BFF's in 3 Days

I'm always surprised to see how people seem to associate so quickly into cliques. My medical school is no exception. Maybe I'm just anti-social... but I don't tend to hug, kiss, and call 45 different people my best friends within 3 days of meeting them. I mean, I have FRIENDS. I swear I do. But my class certainly has an element of chumminess that I really don't relate to. Although maybe I'm missing out.

For instance... I remember on my first day of anatomy lab (so this would have been about 4 days into first semester of med school)... I remember one girl who's locker was by mine running up to a guy classmate, jumping on him, wrapping her legs around him, kissing his hair and saying "I LOVE YOU! I missed you SO much yesterday!!" I sorta didn't think too much of it... because I assumed that certainly they must have known each other before med school started... or perhaps they are both from this city and went to undergrad together... or maybe they were stuck in an elevator together for 29 of the previous 48 hours. Who knows? But then I saw the same girl do nearly the identical jumping-slash-kiss maneuver to another guy a few days later.

The weird thing is that she is certainly not the only one. Probably half of my class acts as if they have been joined at the hip for the past 20 years. I don't know how this immediate friendship status comes about.... perhaps it is alcohol induced. Or maybe its the boot camp phenomenon that happens when young guys join the military and are so traumatized during boot camp that suddenly everyone of their comrades is also their best friend.

I guess I have always been the type of person who is really selective with who I become friends with. In fact, I don't really have many friends. Maybe 8 who I consider really close, another 10-20 who are close acquaintances... and probably most of them have been around for a long time.